The present invention relates to the chemical treatment of industrial process waters. More specifically, the present invention provides a chemical feed system for administering additives into a poultry watering system.
The quality of feed water is a never-ending concern in the poultry industry. Watering systems in poultry growout facilities have tremendous impact on the quality of the final poultry product and on bottom line profitability of an operation. Approximately 65% of a bird's intake is water. As a result, ensuring an ample supply of quality water to birds in poultry growout facilities is extremely important.
Currently, the majority of water supplied to such growout facilities is untreated ground water. Well water is generally of sufficient drinking quality. However, due to high levels of dissolved materials, well water can create significant mechanical difficulties and/or failures.
A number of problems in combination cause less than ideal water supply qualities. System scaling and system corrosion are at the forefront of such problems. Scale formation from hard waters will cause water systems to leak. Likewise, aggressive waters will corrode the system and create leaks. Water leakage results in higher labor costs, equipment replacement costs, and further cleaning costs.
Further, water leakage increases moisture levels and leads to early bedding replacement, high ammonia levels, increased ventilation, and decreased building and equipment life. Wet litter resulting from leaks will form high ammonia levels and need to be replaced. High ammonia levels in the facility have a direct and detrimental effect on a bird's health and productivity. Increasing ventilation removes the high ammonia from the facility; however, this in turn results in increased electrical use.
In addition to water leakage, the presence of microorganisms, especially bacteria, within the feed water is a vital concern. The water system design, along with moisture, provides an ideal growth condition for a variety of microorganisms. The presence of such microorganisms in poultry water systems adversely affects a bird's growth. The microorganisms affect a bird's health and production by interfering with proper digestion.
Still further, scaling and/or corrosion can cause system failure. Likewise, bacteria fouling can also cause such system failure. In turn, system failure causes substantial water loss. Total water loss can result in reduced production and possibly even death of the poultry in a growout facility.
These factors prevent optimum growth conditions and accordingly have a detrimental effect on the final poultry product. Any effect on growth and bird health will ultimately decrease daily poundage gained. As a result, these birds must be housed longer, causing reduced profits and possibly reduced growout storage space for new birds. Further, less than optimum growth conditions requires more feed consumption per pound of weight increase.
An approach that has been used for increasing the quality of feed water is a chemical feed system. The chemical feed system administers chemical additives to water systems in poultry barns. The chemical additives inhibit scale, corrosion and microbial growth as well as sterilize the water. Electrical suction pumps dispense the chemicals into the water stream. The suction pumps in such systems are wired to operate when the well pump operates.
While these current chemical feed systems may increase water quality, a number of disadvantages are apparent with such a system. For example, a disadvantage is the need to use electronically operated feed pumps. The use of electricity limits the available locations in which the chemical feed system may be positioned. As a result, the chemical feed system may not be positioned at the most optimal place within the water system.
Still further, electrical pumps provide only minimal accuracy. For instance, electrical pump systems do not allow for proportional administering of the chemical additives into the water stream.
Therefore, a need exists for an improved chemical feed system for use in poultry watering systems.